Radio host and mother Nicole Sandler was arrested for asking questions about Paul Ryan's Medicare proposal at Rep. Allen West's recent town hall.
The Republicans are reassuring the voters who are worried about Paul Ryan's Medicare "reform" that they're not getting stiffed -- "just" their kids.
It's a scam, of course. You know what Paul Ryan's Medicare plan is? Groupons for healthcare! We're supposed to be thrilled at getting healthcare for 50% off (or whatever their Deal of The Day is). Who doesn't love a deal, right?
They think this is a brilliant plan. They're wrong. They're forgetting about women. We're the ones who always know when a deal isn't worth it.
The same women 45 and older who, statistically speaking, are the ones dealing with the brunt of their elderly parents: overseeing medical care, trying to figure out what's best for their parents and wrestling with the Medicare paperwork.
If there's one thing I do know, it's that Medicare made my parents' final years far more comfortable than it would have been without it. Yes, my dad had a union pension and some investments, but that just covered the basics. Without Medicare, my parents -- a father with pancreatic cancer and a mother with congestive heart failure and an eroding spinal column that required several surgeries -- would have been impoverished.
And if the women who are dealing with their parents are anything like me, we're not only thankful our parents had Medicare, we're counting on it for ourselves, because we don't want to be a burden to our children.
We also want that same security for them.
Now, amoral politicians have one serious handicap: They assume everyone else is as selfish and uncaring as they are. They really don't understand mothers.
Every chance I get, I fight like hell for Medicare and Social Security, even though my own kids don't even believe it'll be there. One of them even believes the conservative propaganda that Baby Boomers selfishly bankrupted the country.
I fight anyway. I'm a mother. I know that even if I'm not here to see it, they'll thank me later.
And so will my grandchildren.
